Andoni Iraola's Villarreal programme notes: 'Let's continue to push on'

After victories away at LASK and Brentford last week, the Reds host Villarreal for Champions League matchday three tonight.

Home fixtures against Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea and Arsenal follow in the Premier League and Carabao Cup.

In his programme notes for the game, the head coach reflects on the character showed by players and fans in Austria and the capital – and underscored the importance of it continuing.

“It is really good to be back at Anfield after a week of travel to Linz and Brentford, especially as we have returned from those back-to-back trips with important victories in two different competitions,” writes Iraola.

“As everyone knows, we are in the middle of a really tough period of the season with the schedule testing everyone and tonight’s game is another example of that with only two days in between our visit to Brentford and this fixture.

“This isn’t to complain, it is just the way it is right now. Our job is to deal with this reality as best we possibly can and this means every one of us has to play our part if we want to get positive results.

“This is what happened on Saturday at Brentford. It was not a perfect performance by any means but individually and collectively we did show many of the qualities that are required to take three points from a very difficult game.

“What pleased me most was the way that we dealt with setbacks, whether this involved losing players to injury, conceding the first goal or having a penalty overturned. These are the kind of challenges that you can expect in a fixture that everyone knows is really tough so coming through them is definitely a positive for us, even if we know there were also phases of the game where we should have been better.

“The win came at a cost of course with Jeremie Frimpong and Dominik Szoboszlai picking up injuries, so we wish both of them a speedy recovery.

“At the same time, we will ask the players who are available to go again in the knowledge that tonight gives us an opportunity to take another step forward in the Champions League.

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“Villarreal will be the second Spanish team we have faced in this competition already this season and they will be another difficult opponent.

“It is definitely worth remembering that they qualified for the Champions League by finishing third in La Liga, one place ahead of Atletico Madrid, and underlined their quality in the previous round of fixtures with a very good victory over Napoli.

“But we have home advantage so it makes sense that we do everything that we possibly can to use it. The atmosphere that our fans created in our last game at Anfield was special and even though we were not able to reward them with three points, it showed how much they are with us, which is something I really appreciate.

“It has been exactly the same on the road because I could not be more aware of the sacrifice that the supporters make when we have to travel for games in Europe and also in this country.

“The away ends we had against LASK and Brentford made a real positive difference to us so I would like to thank every Liverpool supporter who made these trips and helped us to take maximum points.

“We will need your support again tonight, especially as those games highlighted once again that we are stronger together. If we can bring the same kind of desire – on and off the pitch – and stick together in the difficult moments then hopefully we can continue to push on.”